Chapter 52

Mama: "Then why don't you stay?"

Liu Zhiyi walked to the foot of the tree.

She reckoned the distance quietly in her heart; she'd already come a good way from the brick house, yet the frozen-scene state hadn't been triggered the way it had before.

The clues in this dungeon were all too scattered.

But seeing the Yu Xiao in the tree turn into her mother, Liu Zhiyi made a first rough deduction.

She was afraid… her grandmother had already mutated.

At Ankang Hospital, it was after Teacher Yang mutated that they'd been dragged into the dungeon.

Liu Zhiyi had been thinking: was the trigger that turned a single-player dungeon into a multiplayer one the mutation of the person who'd produced the single-player dungeon?

And this dungeon of her grandmother's ghost stories was clearly no single-player dungeon.

So was her grandmother becoming Yindi, turning young again, a mutation?

Liu Zhiyi wasn't too sure, because the dungeon stopped once she left Yindi's sight.

Yet through several tasks — the bamboo-grove ghost, Liu Yang, and even Yu Xiao — when she was in the same scene as these ghosts, the dungeon hadn't stopped.

And besides, Yindi really was very good, as if she had no negative feelings at all…

So…

A guess formed in Liu Zhiyi's mind. What if her grandmother had cut her positive and negative feelings apart?

What if these people and ghosts were all a part of her grandmother?

Liu Zhiyi couldn't be sure her judgment was right.

But there was something that could bear it out from the side.

Liu Zhiyi glanced at the watch.

A line had been added to the task bar.

[Possessed: the world calls me mad, but good and bad are both aspects of me.]

Liu Zhiyi let out a breath and smiled.

It seemed her judgment wasn't wrong; this made things easy.

Liu Zhiyi looked up at the mother on the branch, resolved to test her guess one step further.

"All right, I'll stay."

By her guess, this mother was one aspect of her grandmother's feelings too.

The ever-aggressive mother, tempting her to stay, suddenly halted.

Liu Zhiyi had it.

Whether the mad Yu Xiao or Yindi, what came through in their words was the wish for her to go — to leave this village.

Wasn't that a show of her grandmother's will?

—Rustle.

The wind rose, blowing at Liu Zhiyi's face, hard enough that she couldn't keep her eyes open.

"Go…"

She heard Yu Xiao call again.

"Go, quickly…"

When the wind died, the branch was empty.

Liu Zhiyi looked at the tree's roots, and only now saw several of them bulging up out of the ground.

And under one root a small mound of earth had risen.

Too obvious, surely.

Liu Zhiyi stepped forward and scraped the mound open with a little trowel.

A black iron pair of scissors emerged from the earth.

She picked the scissors up out of the pit.

At the same time, a new prompt popped up in the prop tab.

[Scissors: a pair that can cut Auntie Yuedi's umbilical cord.]

"Child."

Liu Zhiyi turned, holding the scissors.

The old woman stood behind her.

"You're not one of this place."

Liu Zhiyi nodded.

The old woman seemed to know some things; she'd just been guiding her, or she might not have strung the clues together so fast.

"Do you know how to leave the dungeon… this place?"

She said "dungeon" on purpose.

But the old woman seemed not to notice.

"You must have realized — everyone in this village has mutated. They're no longer living people."

The old woman: "You're different — you can still leave. I'll teach you how."

See, Liu Zhiyi looked at the old woman.

Her grandmother wanted her to leave the dungeon.

Liu Zhiyi studied the old woman before her.

Then she found the woman was missing two teeth when she spoke, a bit like the village chief in reality.

Everyone in this dungeon was someone she'd seen, or a figure from a ghost story she'd heard as a child.

Her grandmother really was remembering the past, over and over.

Liu Zhiyi sighed inwardly.

Liu Zhiyi: "How do I leave the village?"

The old woman: "Didn't you just dig up a pair of scissors? Find Auntie Yuedi, cut the umbilical cord, and you can get out."

That wasn't enough. She didn't just want to get out herself — she wanted to resolve her grandmother's obsession and take her grandmother out too.

As for how to resolve an obsession, she had to figure out where the obsession came from.

Liu Zhiyi could feel that this dungeon — whether in the ghost stories it told or the people she met — was quietly hinting at her grandmother's thoughts.

Or perhaps all dungeons were like this.

A dungeon was a person's inner heart.

Wasn't this just a reading-comprehension exercise, Liu Zhiyi thought, making the best of the bitter joke.

While clearing the dungeon, she also had to work out what story the dungeon was telling, and what its author meant to express.

Liu Zhiyi: "How did the village become like this?"

"A grievous karma." The old woman sighed. "There was a mother in the village before — no telling how it happened, but she accidentally caused her own daughter's death, and then could never get past it."

Liu Zhiyi's brows jumped.

The old woman: "Do you know about Auntie Yuedi?"

Liu Zhiyi nodded.

"The poor soul who died in childbirth."

The old woman: "That kind of ghost is the fiercest — her own child dead, she can't bear to see anyone else with a child… No telling how that mother got tangled up with her, but it's killed off a whole village, and now it means to lure people from outside in."

So her grandmother's multiplayer dungeon was slowly filling itself out into something coherent too.

Liu Zhiyi: "Besides me, is there anyone else?"

"For now I've only seen you, the one outsider." The old woman's brows knit tight. "I've got to send you out."

The old woman murmured, "You shouldn't have come in, you shouldn't have come in."

Though she'd only just met this old woman, she was terribly urgent about sending Liu Zhiyi out.

It seemed her grandmother really was anxious.

Liu Zhiyi thought a moment.

"How do I find Auntie Yuedi?"

The old woman smiled. "Wait for me in your room tonight, and I'll take you to cut it."

Compared to the first two dungeons, where she had to find the clues herself and fight the boss to get out —

this dungeon's difficulty was much lower, and there was even someone leading her, trying to send her out.

Her grandmother really was easing off so much it was near an ocean of it.

The old woman: "Go back with Yindi in a bit, and wait in the room for me to come."

By the look of it, the umbilical cord could only be seen at night, Liu Zhiyi thought.

"Be sure to wait for me." Before she left, the old woman warned her again and again, uneasy. "It's not safe to go alone."

Liu Zhiyi said helplessly, "I know."

Stressed like this, night must be a good deal more dangerous than day.

Even in her grandmother's dungeon, which on the whole meant her well, the dungeon still held danger.

Liu Zhiyi was slowly coming to understand the cat's idea now: if there weren't really some thing manipulating from behind, how could a grandmother who wanted only to get her out ever harm her inside the dungeon?

Still uneasy, the old woman saw her back to Yindi's side, repeated what she'd said before once more, and only then left, looking back at every step.

Seeing her return, Yindi asked nothing, but stuffed another handful of puffed rice into her hand.

"Want some sweet-and-sour ribs?"

Liu Zhiyi was taken aback.

Really, for the dungeon's era, sweet-and-sour ribs turning up was quite out of place.

But who could refuse a dish her grandmother made?

Liu Zhiyi: "Yes!"

Just while Yindi cooked, Liu Zhiyi noticed it had gone dark outside the door.

As if the film had been put on fast-forward, all at once it went from day to night.

Yindi: "Eat up."

Liu Zhiyi turned and saw a table full of dishes.

All her favorites.

Liu Zhiyi: "You…"

Yindi shook her head. "Eat first. Don't talk about anything too serious while you eat — we'll talk once we're done."

Her mother had been the same in life.

Whatever the quarrel, however angry, it had to wait until after the meal.

The dinner table had become a kind of harbor for Liu Zhiyi.

She wanted to eat fast, to gather the clues fast and take her grandmother home, but she also felt such peaceful mealtimes had been so rare since her mother's death that she wanted to savor it a while longer.

But a meal always has to be finished.

Yindi cut off her move to clear the bowls.

"Was it me who called you in?"

Liu Zhiyi's hand paused. "What do you mean?"

Yindi smiled and stroked her own belly.

"I know some things have happened in the village."

Yindi: "Am I dead?"

Liu Zhiyi said nothing.

Yindi: "It's fine, really, if I'm dead — it's only a pity for my Rongrong."

She smiled and pointed at her belly.

"I named my child Liu Rong. Nice, isn't it?"

Liu Zhiyi: "…It's nice."

Yindi: "That's what I thought too, so when I knew I might not be able to bring her into the world, I couldn't help calling my daughter's name over and over. Did you hear it and turn around?"

Yindi: "A child with no family like you, hearing a mother call for her daughter, would surely turn around. My fault, my fault…"

Hearing this, Liu Zhiyi caught Yindi's hand.

"What do you mean, a child with no family like me?"

Liu Zhiyi had never worked out why she'd appeared in a child's form.

Liu Zhiyi: "Why do you think I'm a child with no family?"

A dungeon always reflects a person's truest thoughts.

Liu Zhiyi thought of a great deal — that Yindi would have this idea…

Was it because her grandmother had meant, from the start, to leave her alone?

Yindi cupped her belly.

"…I don't know why I have this idea either. The moment I saw you, that's what was in my head…"

"And?" Liu Zhiyi pressed.

Yindi: "Actually, when I first saw you on your own, I was a little angry — angry that you'd turned up here."

As she spoke Yindi blinked, as if puzzled herself why she'd be angry with a stranger.

Yindi: "Then I thought, your family's so irresponsible, leaving you alone — but after spending time with you, though you're clumsy sometimes, you look after yourself well enough… and I felt relieved."

"You can do fine on your own."

Yindi looked at her, smiling.

"Somehow, that's the idea that came into my head."

Liu Zhiyi: "No, no, no… you can't think that way."

She gripped Yindi's hand.

"I can't be without you. I can't be alone. I…"

Yindi patted her hand.

"Second Sister's here…"

Liu Zhiyi startled, turned, and saw the old woman standing in the doorway.

Yindi packed her a big bag of puffed rice and put a coat on her too.

"Once you're out, no more running around."

Yindi buttoned up the coat for her, warning her all the while.

"Your days ahead are long — no need to hang about with folk like us who have no future."

Liu Zhiyi wanted to say something, but Yindi was astonishingly strong, and dragged her out the door.

Yindi: "Don't come back."

With that, Yindi shut the door outright.

Liu Zhiyi stood in the doorway.

"Let's go." The old woman tugged her hand. "Let's be quick about it."

From the reactions of both Yindi and the old woman, you could see her grandmother truly wanted her out of the dungeon fast — to the point of urgency.

Had something happened?